This week FLEW by! Well, I guess they all fly by with how old I am in this mission. I have a little over four months and as I've said before, time is not slowing down. I just have to continue to give it my all so that I can be proud of what I will have accomplished at the end of my mission.
This week went really well. Despite not teaching as many lessons as we wanted, our investigators continue to show their willingness to put the Gospel to the test.
L (young one) was unable to come to church, but read seven chapter in the Book of Mormon last week. He said he hasn't felt anything, but we assured him that if he continues to read, he will gain the spiritual confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true. L set a new goal this week to not only read seven chapters, but to really pay attention to his feelings and write down which verse he liked the most in each chapter. I think with that mentality, he will have spiritual experiences. He said that his manager is still being a turkey, but he promises to come to church during fall break. We're praying that he has a spiritual experience at that time so that he can have the faith to find a new job or something. We pray for and expect miracles here in the NCRM. (North Carolina Raleigh Mission)
L (old) is also progressing. He did not come to church yesterday like he said he would, but at least he's beginning to read and pray consistently. We have a lesson with him tonight, so I'm hoping to make more progress. It''ll be my last time seeing him, so I will try to testify my heart out. (foreshadowing)
I tried to make progress with our old man R, but he is the most hard-headed man I have ever met. I try not to argue with him, but sometimes I have to raise my voice and talk over him because he just doesn't listen. I bore my testimony and committed him to read AGAIN, and we're bringing a different member every week so that they can tell their conversion stories. I wrote him a letter this morning, so maybe it'll touch him.
We also have this new investigator named Amado de la Cruz. He's a super humble man from Guerrero, Mexico. He's a man that truly recognizes us as servants of the Lord. In fact, he wouldn't come to church yesterday because he spent the whole day making tamales for us. He said he wanted to "celebrate us," so he made us some food. We went over that night and had some delicious food and a great lesson with him. He has a lot of real intent and has been praying to know if what we tell him is true. Unfortunately, he prayed to Joseph Smith, so I spent the first ten minutes of the lesson clarifying who we're supposed to pray to using the Bible. Halfway through the rest of the Restoration he finally says "so we don't pray to Joseph Smith, only God? And Joseph Smith was just a man called of God, nothing else?" I was so happy that he understood! That way I wouldn't have to leave Elder Flake with that issue. So we introduced the Book of Mormon and he said he would read and pray every day. And then we took a picture! And then he went and got his phone and we took ANOTHER picture! Really good, humble man.
This week went really well. Despite not teaching as many lessons as we wanted, our investigators continue to show their willingness to put the Gospel to the test.
L (young one) was unable to come to church, but read seven chapter in the Book of Mormon last week. He said he hasn't felt anything, but we assured him that if he continues to read, he will gain the spiritual confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true. L set a new goal this week to not only read seven chapters, but to really pay attention to his feelings and write down which verse he liked the most in each chapter. I think with that mentality, he will have spiritual experiences. He said that his manager is still being a turkey, but he promises to come to church during fall break. We're praying that he has a spiritual experience at that time so that he can have the faith to find a new job or something. We pray for and expect miracles here in the NCRM. (North Carolina Raleigh Mission)
L (old) is also progressing. He did not come to church yesterday like he said he would, but at least he's beginning to read and pray consistently. We have a lesson with him tonight, so I'm hoping to make more progress. It''ll be my last time seeing him, so I will try to testify my heart out. (foreshadowing)
I tried to make progress with our old man R, but he is the most hard-headed man I have ever met. I try not to argue with him, but sometimes I have to raise my voice and talk over him because he just doesn't listen. I bore my testimony and committed him to read AGAIN, and we're bringing a different member every week so that they can tell their conversion stories. I wrote him a letter this morning, so maybe it'll touch him.
We also have this new investigator named Amado de la Cruz. He's a super humble man from Guerrero, Mexico. He's a man that truly recognizes us as servants of the Lord. In fact, he wouldn't come to church yesterday because he spent the whole day making tamales for us. He said he wanted to "celebrate us," so he made us some food. We went over that night and had some delicious food and a great lesson with him. He has a lot of real intent and has been praying to know if what we tell him is true. Unfortunately, he prayed to Joseph Smith, so I spent the first ten minutes of the lesson clarifying who we're supposed to pray to using the Bible. Halfway through the rest of the Restoration he finally says "so we don't pray to Joseph Smith, only God? And Joseph Smith was just a man called of God, nothing else?" I was so happy that he understood! That way I wouldn't have to leave Elder Flake with that issue. So we introduced the Book of Mormon and he said he would read and pray every day. And then we took a picture! And then he went and got his phone and we took ANOTHER picture! Really good, humble man.
So now that I've foreshadowed enough, here's the news. I got a call from President James on Friday and he released me as district leader . :( BUT!....he gave me yet another assignment. No, I'm not going zone leader. This assignment is special and I guess he sees something in me. He wants me to train again in a different area, but the elder I'm training will have had no Spanish training whatsoever, meaning he did not learn any Spanish prior to coming to the mission. Not even in the MTC. So it's my job to train him and to teach him Spanish. It'll be weird to train again and not be district leader anymore, but I'm excited to be in a new area and to train another new missionary. I've learned a lot from training Elder Flake (and I hope that he's learned from me) and we've had a lot of success here. I'm sad to be leaving, especially with the way our investigators are going, but I trust Elder Flake and his new companion to follow through on what we've been doing and get these people in the water. I'm sad to leave Raeford, but there are new adventures elsewhere. Please pray that I can continue to progress as a missionary and that the Lord will give me the ability to carry out His work in the way that He wants.
I love each of you and hope y'all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Landon Carroll
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